Relationship Management

By Kevin Temple, President of ValueVision Associates

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Relationship Management is not about a piece of software. In today's economy, it's about recapturing why your customers decided on your solution in the first place.

Ask yourself a few questions: Do you find yourself in a position of justifying your role in your customer's business? Are the champions who originally decided on your solution no longer in those positions?

I suggest taking a proactive approach and initiating a Relationship Management (RM) meeting with your customer. A great time to do this is at the beginning of the year.

  • The structure is as follows: As pre-work prior to the RM meeting, interview the stakeholders from the customer organization and your own team members to capture why this customer decided on your solution in the first place.


  • Specifically: Identify the unresolved business issue or challenge at the time. Examples are cost management, time to market, and competitive pressures.


  • Identify the underlying people, process or technology problems impeding the business. Examples include, lack of staff, expertise, iterations in operations, or simply an additional step that is not supported by the previous solution.


  • Identify the solutions that your company used to resolve the problems and address the business issue.


  • Identify the value that was accrued as a result of your solutions. (hint: quantify the impact of the problems and the business issue)


  • During your RM meeting, review this information and seek confirmation or changes to the picture. This will ensure that they have the same picture that you do.


  • Use the same topic format (Business Issue, Problems, Solutions, and Value) to mutually create an update of the customer's current situation. This step can uncover new opportunities for your company and develop your future value.


  • Confirm that the customer stakeholders felt that the meeting was worthwhile, and if so, request a regular review of this information. Annually, bi-annually, or quarterly.


    • Kevin Temple is cofounder and president of ValueVision Associates (www.valueselling.com), creators of the Value Selling framework. Mr. Temple can be reached at kevin@valueselling.com.
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